How does the material brain recall specific memories at will?

How does the material brain recall specific memories at will? How does the material brain know the difference between specific memories? For instance, how does the material brain know the difference between a memory from little league football and a memory in the Army and which one I wish to recall?

I just recalled 5 different memories back to back. A memory flying on a plane, a memory of my first dive, a memory when I went to a Tyson fight in Vegas, a memory driving to Atlanta and a memory playing with rocks in my driveway when I was little.

How does the material brain know the difference between these memories? How does the material brain know which memories I wish to recall and what order I wish to recall them in?

reply to post by neoholographic


I would think it would be the impression these memories had on you. I am older and so much has been forgotten. Children will ask if I remember such and so and the answer is no. It made an impression on them but not me.

The mind is not material and is unobservable, which means we will never be able to explain how or why certain memories can be recalled at will. Science can only explain the observable, not the observer.

Sorry if this didn't answer your question, but I believe the question is unanswerable.

Nine pages of discussion here.

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You are speaking of "the material brain" and "I" as two distinct entities. Your "self" is an emergent property of your brain's hardwired and adapted programming.

It was years ago that I read it, but I suggest a jaunt to your local library and borrow Daniel Dennet's "Consciousness Explained". I and my material brain found it to be a fascinating read.

Originally posted by 3NL1GHT3N3D1
The mind is not material and is unobservable, which means we will never be able to explain how or why certain memories can be recalled at will. Science can only explain the observable, not the observer.

Sorry if this didn't answer your question, but I believe the question is unanswerable.

Exactly my point. It can't be answered with a strictly materialist explanation. There has to be a consciousness outside of the material that's aware of the information being processed and can exert it's will on the material information processor (the brain).

The brain processes information but it can't recall a specific memory at will or know which memory you wish to recall.

I just recalled a specific memory when I was a Pitcher in a little league championship game. The brain processed this information when I played the game. Consciousness isn't bound by space-time and can exert it's will on the material brain to recall that specific memory.

Again, the brain doesn't know the difference between specific memories and can't recall these specific memories at will.

It works like this. The brain processes information when a memory occurs. This memory is formed in the brain via specific brain cells. When I recall a specific memory there has to be something that tells the brain cells to really go back in time and form the same way you did back in say 1985 when I went on a trip to Chicago with my parents.

This is Consciousness. Consciousness stimulates these brain cells to form in the same way they did when a memory was processed. When this occurs the specific memory is recalled.

reply to post by neoholographic


Hello my dear brother,

The material brain is a computer that does not have discriminating abilities to a great degree. Your consciousness invokes the memories and the brain complies.

reply to post by 3NL1GHT3N3D1


Quite precisely said.

I think of the brain is an individual processor for a universal and collective consciousness.

Memories are coming to you and being processed by your brain. How those memories are processed is different from person to person to some extent. Hence why two people can have different interpretations of the same event.

I'm no scientist or shaman, but it seems likely to me.

also I'd like to add, that I was just playing my guitar a second ago and thinking about muscle memory(I can close my eyes and play chords etc etc) and how perhaps memory can exist in or even be processed by different organs and tissues in different ways.